


Reunion

by fantastic_rambles



Category: Id:Invaded (Anime)
Genre: Conversations, Friendship, Romantic Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:56:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29645418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fantastic_rambles/pseuds/fantastic_rambles
Summary: Although Fukuda remains in a coma following the events of Asukai Kiki’s release, Hondomachi hopes to speak with the man who changed her life at least one more time. Thanks to the Mizuhanome, she discovers that it is possible to get her wish.
Kudos: 6





	Reunion

She looked down at the girl at her feet, and a flash of recognition pierced her strange amnesia.

"I know this girl's name. This is Kaeru. And so I remember who I am. My name is Hijirido Miyo, the brilliant detective."

And as the brilliant detective, she had to solve the mystery of Kaeru's death. But before she could begin her examination of the oddly segmented body, another voice interrupted her.

"Ha ha ha. You're not wrong, but you're not exactly correct, either."

Turning around, she saw a young man in a blue trenchcoat. He was smiling broadly as she looked at him, and she frowned in response.

"Who are you? And what do you mean?"

"I am the brilliant detective, Anaido. But I am also Fukuda Tamotsu, just as you... are... Hondomachi Koharu," he introduced himself, leaning over to tap her on the forehead in time with his words. Suddenly, all of her memories came flooding back, and her eyes widened as she took them all in. And then she was throwing herself at the man, wrapping her arms around him.

"Fukuda!"

He laughed again, raising his hand so he could pat her on the head.

"That's right, Hijirido. It was quite clever of you to use the Mizuhanome to arrange this. Am I correct to think that this is my id well?"

"Yes," Hondomachi replied, her voice slightly muffled by his coat. Stepping back and tilting her head up to look at him, she continued, "It seemed like you wanted to see it. And if Chief Hayaseura could enter his well even after he died, then you should be able to as well, even in a coma."

"And the Kura probably determined that there would be a low risk of a well storm, due to my unique condition in which I can remain a brilliant detective while remembering Fukuda Tamotsu. And even if there was one, I could get us out," Anaido finished cheerfully, jabbing finger guns at Hondomachi. "Cool! Though I must admit that it is rather uncomfortable to be missing my hole."

Instantly, Hondomachi looked contrite, dropping her gaze. "I'm sorry. But there was no other way--"

"It's fine, it's fine, it's fine," he reassured her, walking over to the window. "I got to see this place, and the nice job that you and Narihisago did with the old man."

He tapped on the glass, and she walked over to look out herself at the figure in red collapsed in the Mizuhanome cockpit. A feeling of satisfaction bubbled up in her chest as she recalled how they had managed to trap and defeat John Walker, who had incited so many serial killers, including the Perforator. They'd cornered him, stripped him of his ability to play God, and then sent him to a world where only his own death awaited him, if Narihisago's predictions were correct.

"Besides, it's better than Narihisago's well," Anaido added. "His always drove me crazy, though I haven't quite figured out how I can kill myself off in this one yet. I wouldn't have minded seeing your own well again, either, but I suppose this wouldn't have been possible, then, since you would have had a well storm."

"Or you could just wake up," Hondomachi suggested, but he just chuckled.

"Why would I want to do that? Other than something like this, everything is probably quiet and empty, right? That was the whole reason I put a drill through my head in the first place. And now that the Kura knows the truth about Anaido, they won't use me again since I have even less reason to stay alive in a well than before."

Hondomachi's face fell slightly, but he wasn't saying anything that they hadn't already figured out. For Fukuda, the only thing better than remaining comatose, in which there was a chance for recovery, would probably be actually being dead. She'd realized that herself when she'd entered Asukai Kiki's well and spoken to him again, and as the brilliant detective Anaido, he would feel that urge even more strongly. Perhaps even this was cruel of her, to drag him out of the void that he so clearly desired, just for her own satisfaction, but she'd wanted to talk to him again, at least one more time.

"Anyways!" Anaido interrupted, still as cheerful as before. He didn't seem to have noticed her mood at all--or perhaps he was just being considerate in his own way--as he clapped his hands to get her attention. "You still haven't told me what you think about my well, Hijirido."

Hondomachi looked around at the empty spaces that had been filled with the return of her memory, the way all the disjointed pieces fit together while still leaving gaps, and she smiled at Anaido.

"It's interesting, just like you."

"Isn't it? Let's take a look around," Anaido offered, pulling open the door to the room. Hondomachi spared a moment to glance back at Kaeru, then followed him out, letting him take the lead.

"So, what's this about? Just visiting?" he asked, and she nodded.

"I just want to know more about you. You saved my life, so the least I can do is try to remember you. But all I really know is the Perforator. What were you like before that? How did you become who you are?"

"Wow! What a hard worker!" Anaido exclaimed, turning around and walking backwards so he could look at her. "But there's no debt of obligation, Hijirido. I just did what I wanted to do, and it worked out for the best for both of us. And I was even able to get three wishes granted: I think I had the better end of the bargain."

"I still want to know," Hondomachi insisted, and he nodded, turning around again and leading them off in a different direction.

"Well, then, let's find somewhere that we can be comfortable while we talk," he suggested. After pulling a few more rooms together, they found the living room that was occupied by Fukuda's "family." The sight of his victims troubled Hondomachi somewhat, though Anaido seemed fascinated by them. Still, the prospect of talking to a real person rather than something his mind had generated proved to be a greater draw, and they continued to piece together the fragmented well. 

Eventually, they were able to find a simple room that was probably part of a basement: blank walls, no windows, and a few pieces of furniture. Anaido's fingers tapped in a steady rhythm on his leg after they had each taken a seat, but there were no other obvious signs of his arithmomania in the mostly bare room.

"You know, even if John Walker hadn't shown up in my dreams, I might have started drilling holes in other people anyways," Anaido commented, and Hondomachi nodded. He wouldn't know anything that had happened in Asukai's well, but their conversation then had suggested as much. When she had reviewed Narihisago's investigations and interviewed Fukuda, she'd realized that he was the only one of Chief Hayaseura's targets who had refused to kill Asukai, since he had no interest in "dream holes." Unlike the other killers, who were driven by a desire to kill, he just wanted to help people in the way that a hole in his head had helped him: the resulting deaths were just incidental. It didn't make the reality any less terrible, and there was no doubt that Fukuda was certifiably insane for having such a thought process, but he was at least marginally more sympathetic for it.

"Before that, though, I think that I had a fairly ordinary life. Or as ordinary as it could be with this."

He raised a hand to tap the right side of his head.

"It was a blessing and a curse. I made good money as a programmer, enough that I could stay home most of the time so I didn't have to deal with a flood of numbers, other than when I was working. And I was good at what I did. But maybe that just made things worse, because they started to drown out everything else. I began to see numbers everywhere: four walls, two windows, even the cracks in the ceiling. Eventually, even when I closed my eyes, they continued to pour in. And when it finally became too much..."

He shrugged. When it had finally become too much, he had tried to end it by putting a hole through his head. It was a common enough method, if not for the tool he had chosen for the task.

"Why a drill?" Hondomachi asked, and Anaido smiled as he pointed at her hole.

"Why indeed? I always tried to put them in the same place, you know. How much do you know about the anatomy of the brain?"

"Not much," Hondomachi admitted, and Anaido turned his finger onto himself, placing it on his forehead where his own hole had been.

"The frontal lobe is in charge of many things, including working memory. In layman's terms, something like attention span."

Tracing his finger around his head to where the drill had broken through the back of his skull, he continued, "The parietal lobe is important for sensing, and more importantly, in my case, for numbers. It is perfectly possible to keep living even with damage to both those areas, as you've learned. I merely decided to roll the dice."

"And you won your gamble."

"I did. And so did you. Con-grat-s!" He jabbed his fingers toward her again, still as chipper as always. But Hondomachi noticed how his eyes were shifting, taking in everything in bits and pieces, but mostly focusing on her--or more likely, the patterns in her clothes--in the barren room. Reluctantly, she got to her feet, brushing off her legs.

"I'm sorry again. I'll go now, but... would you mind if we did this again sometime? Just talking a little, once in a while?"

Anaido's head cocked slightly, and his smile softened, looking more like Fukuda than the brilliant detective.

"If it really just is 'once in a while,' I might like that, _Hondomachi_."

She smiled back, and then both of them looked up as an invisible hand tugged them into the sky. Hondomachi opened her eyes as the Mizuhanome cockpit settled around her, her gaze shifting to the other machine, where Fukuda lay, unmoving. Two guards were already there, starting to move him to a gurney, and she just watched until they left.

"Are you alright, Hondomachi?"

She smiled, looking up toward the ceiling.

"I'm fine, Director Momoki."

"Then please get ready. We have a new well to investigate."


End file.
